Staying Fit
Paul McCartney recently recorded bass parts in Los Angeles for an upcoming Rolling Stones album. Here’s what we know about it so far.
There’s no Beatles drummer on the record — but there is a lost Stone
Sadly, early rumors that Ringo Starr had joined McCartney on the Stones record proved false. But there are several tracks recorded by the Stones’ drummer Charlie Watts before his 2021 death that are likely to wind up on the album. “Let me put it this way,” Keith Richards told Los Angeles Times writer Mikael Wood, “You haven’t heard the last of Charlie Watts.”
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The historic Beatles-Stones collaboration has a producer who bridges generations
The record is produced by Grammy winner Andrew Watt, 32, also a guitarist and singer, who has worked with McCartney in the past and may have brokered the deal. Watt started the band California Breed with Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath) and Jason Bonham (Foreigner, Led Zeppelin), has performed with the surviving Doors, and produced Elton John and Britney Spears’ duet “Hold Me Closer” and recordings by Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and Pearl Jam. “He’s good because he’s quick,” Eddie Vedder told Guitar World. “He’s very interesting — we’ve had some fun,” McCartney told the website paulmccartney.com in December.
(Left to right) Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards perform on stage during The Rolling Stones Sixty Tour at Anfield on June 9, 2022 in Liverpool, England.
Dave J Hogan/Dave J. Hogan/Getty Images
The Stones are on a roll
They released their concert album GRRR Live! this month. It is the first Stones album since 2016’s Grammy-winning blues covers collection, Blue & Lonesome, and the first set of Stones originals since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The band was the top-grossing live act of 2021, and despite Mick Jagger’s bout with COVID, “Sixty,” their 60th-anniversary show, was the No. 6 tour of 2022.
Paul McCartney (left) with his daughter Mary McCartney at the London premiere of the Disney+ original documentary "If These Walls Could Sing" at Abbey Road Studios on Dec. 12, 2022 in London, England.
David M. Benett/Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty Images
McCartney’s hot too
On the heels of last year’s triumphant “Got Back” tour, the reissues of Wild Life and Revolver, a triple box set of his solo albums, and his appearance in his daughter Mary McCartney’s Abbey Road documentary If These Walls Could Sing — he almost got run over by a car while reenacting the famous crosswalk album cover photo — McCartney has scheduled a tour launching April 28.
